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Lighting Design Dilemma Kitchens

How many recessed lights in a kitchen with 7 foot ceilings?

2 years ago

Yes, you read right. 7 foot ceilings. The house is 300 years old, so you have to work with the space you have. And we can't raise the ceilings, as my girls' room is directly above it with 6 foot ceilings. It's quite charming, though. Anyways...

We are renovating the kitchen and need to figure out how many recessed lights we should get and where to put them.

Some information...

- The kitchen is 18x14

- There will be two sconces on each side of the range hood

- There will be three recessed lights (smaller ones) above the large window in front of the sink.

I'm attaching the layout of the kitchen and a picture of its state right now. We have 4 recessed lights marked out on the ceiling (roughly) on the corners of the island. *Also, kitchen pendants are being removed from the "current state" photo.

Do we need more, or do you think this is sufficient? I don't want to overdo it, but I also want enough.

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Comments (3)

PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
2 years ago
Wall sconces are useless for actul task lighting so IMO all pot lights LED 4000K and you need a pot every 4' all around the space and placed so they light the counters and do not create shadows .Any pendants you choose for over the island need to light the island not the ceiling . All walkways should be 48" all base cabinets should be drawers and IMO you never walk past the range to go from fridge to sink I am just guessing about this layout. I sure hope you have an indepedant KD not a cabinet salesperson designing this space. Make sure all the cabinets go to the ceiling too.
ecwetzel
Original Author
2 years ago
Patricia, thank you! I will make sure our lights are 4' apart. Does this distance change with different height ceilings? Our previous house was 9.5 feet ceilings, and obviously recessed lighting there would be different than the same light in 7 foot ceilings.

And our range is not in between sink and fridge, and cabinets do go to the ceiling.
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K R
2 years ago
My kitchen isn’t huge and we have 6, and 3 pendants which I never turn on…they’re literally for style only, so don’t depend on them. I would have done more recessed if I could go back now. Under cabinet lighting is very helpful though and I use that any time I’m cooking in the evening, so if that’s a possibility for you I would definitely add it.

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